From all that has been said, then, on the housing, clothing, food, and fuel provided for the soldiers, and the killing toil exacted from them during that period of the war which had most influence on their health and after history, the sad picture may be formed of their condition in the Crimea. Day after day passed in severe bodily exertion and anxious watching one moment digging laboriously in extending the approaches, and the next with arms in hand repelling the assaulting enemy; almost always wet; exposed without cover to the drenching rain and soaking snow, the keen frost and biting wind; standing for days in wet mud; constantly either unnaturally excited or depressed; ever in danger, and without hope of a change; their dirty humid clothes in rags, their bodies covered with loathsome vermin which seemed to grow out of their very flesh; no comforts in their wind-pierced tents on the bleak plateau; no fires, unless, weary and foot-sore as they: beneath: --covered sod for -wot.'nil to kindle a feeble and tantalizing: without food till, after hours of ion, tin to half cook their unpalatable ration over their winking lire; huddled into a crowded the niu'ht in a close noisome atmosphere on the oozy ground) covered liy the same blanket which protected them in the wet and muddy trenehrs; longing tr the morning, though its early dawn was signalled by the buule sound which called them to a renewal of that dread task whose severity made them yet.:ild to God it were ni-ht." This ion.
It is true, though diilicult to be realix now by those who themselves saw it. we, then, furl anywhere else in reality, nay, can we by the utmost stretch of imau'i nation conceive, a more fruitful field for the seeds of or the harvest of death, than is here pr.--.ntrd to us in the eamp of the wear who fought so gallantly, endured so constantly, or died BO nobly, and who now consir humble graves the -Teen hill sides and l"nr!y valleys nf liie Crini that frightful combination to encircle our am; with walls of iron, and make it prisoners ad scourges, chl, r, and dyscn of death in the camp to iiiory like tinawfu! of a distempered dream. recalled;,- they had a most Q ill.aiiiiai.-' of war, and i; that would otherwise be unintelligible becomes clear as noonday when read by the light thrown on it by thcsr But if such a condition of things as I have feebly outlined was trying to the strong, how can I express its influence on the weak!
It is impossible fully to realize the hopeless condition of the sufferers, struck down by enfeebling sickness or exhausting wounds, and deprived of that vigour which alone made hardship endurable. The regimental hospital marquee, and the round bell tent which served as hospitals, were of necessity vastly overcrowded.f The former, which measures 27 x * " The poor condemned English, Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires Sit patiently, and inly ruminate The morning's danger; and their gesture sad, Investing lank-lean cheeks, and war-worn coats, Presented them unto the gazing moon So many horrid ghosts.'' KING HENRY V. act iv. scene 1. How completely does the noble heroism displayed by our troops in tho Crimea refute General Toy's estimate of them!
" The English soldier,'' he says, " is not brave at times merely; he is so whenever he has eaten well, drunk well, and slept well. Yet their courage rather instinctive than acquired has need of solid nutriment; and no thoughts of glory will r\vr make them forget that they are hungry, or that their shoes are worn out." FOY, vol. i. p. 231. f If properly constructed and erected on suitable ground, there are no structures better adapted for the hospitals of an army in the field than wooden huts or canvass tents. The dreadful epidemics which have so frequently pursued armies, and the mortality which has attended their wounds, have in not a few instances been due to the employment of stone buildings as hospitals.